Elizabeth G. Kirkpatrick, nurse

Elizabeth G. Kirkpatrick, a homemaker who had been an Army nurse during World War II, died Oct. 29 from complications of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson.

The longtime Ruxton resident was 91.

The daughter of a career Army officer and a homemaker, Elizabeth Reily Gross was born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa., where she graduated from the Seiler School.

A boarding student, she graduated in 1939 from St. Timothy's School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1942 from Bryn Mawr College. She was a 1944 graduate of the Columbia University School of Nursing.

She enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in 1944 and served in the venereal disease ward at what was then Camp Polk, La., where she "developed a lifelong fondness for armadillos and many memories of her charges on the VD ward," said her son, Crawford N. Kirkpatrick III of Swansea, Mass.

Discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1945, she joined the nursing staff at Union Memorial Hospital.

"She became enamored of a young doctor named Crawford N. Kirkpatrick Jr. She tripped him in the hallway and they were subsequently married in 1947," her son said.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick left nursing after her marriage to raise her family at her Ruxton home, where she lived for the remainder of her life.

She had been a member of the board of Calvert School and had been president of the Maryland Children and Family Services during the 1970s.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick collected stuffed armadillos, family members said. She also was an avid gardener and reader and enjoyed crossword puzzles.

She was an Orioles fan and also enjoyed spending summer vacations at a family home in Eagles Mere, Pa.

Her husband, a noted Baltimore internist, died in 1980.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick was an active member of Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church, 6200 N. Charles St., where a memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Kirkpatrick is survived by three daughters, Mary E. Kirkpatrick of Moorestown, N.J., Sarah E. Kirkpatrick of Ashland, Ore., and Elizabeth B. Kirkpatrick of the Bahamas; two sisters, Nancy G. Harvey of Baltimore and Martha G. Morrison of Harrisburg; and three grandchildren.